This invention relates to a process for preparing honey-roasted, coated nuts and is more particularly concerned with a process for preparing honey-roasted, preferably by contact with hot air, nuts and with the nuts so prepared.
A variety of foods, including nuts such as peanuts and cashews, and meats such as chicken and ham have been roasted, fired or cooked after coating with a honey-containing solution. Because the honey is in direct contact with the food, it serves to transfer heat from the heat source to the food (i.e., it is the heat transfer agent). Accordingly, these products are variously referred to as honey-fried, honey-baked, or honey-roasted. The present invention provides improvements in honey roasting nuts.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,545 to Green et al describes the preparation of honey-roasted nuts by coating raw nuts with a mixture of water and 50 to 80% honey, enrobing the coated nuts with a dry mixture containing about 84-92% by weight of sugar and about 8-16% by weight of starch, the particle size in the mixture being in the range of 0.002 inch to 0.02 inch, and then roasting the coated nuts using either oil or air (dry) roasting equipment. It is stated that, in contrast to the use of adhesive solutions containing dextrose or corn syrup (which are said to give a dark brown color to the roasted nut) and coating solutions containing sucrose and dextrose (which are said to give a light colored roasted nut), the use of the honey-water coating solution gives a more appealing honey color and pleasant taste to the roasted nut.
More recently, U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,758 to Morris has claimed that honey in liquid form is disadvantageous for use in coating nuts. To achieve a uniform coating which has a noticeable honey flavor and yet is suitably adhesive, Morris teaches a two-stage coating procedure which employs no honey in the first stage and honey in dry form in the second stage. Unfortunately, the use of dry honey has several disadvantages versus liquid honey, including its relatively high cost, its somewhat diminished concentration of some flavor notes, and its reduced adhesive power.
Yet more recently, U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,820 to Tang describes the preparation of honey-roasted nuts with a glazed surface appearance. The single stage coating process calls for coating nuts with an aqueous solution comprising 10-20% honey and 50-70% sucrose, and then drying and roasting. And, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,833, Sharma states that where honey coatings are applied prior to roasting, difficulties are encountered both with coating properties and product flavor. To correct for this, Sharma discloses applying a coating slurry after partial roasting, the coating containing only a low level of honey and requiring the presence of an oil to achieve desired flow properties.
We have now found that honey-roasted nuts having excellent eye appeal, taste and texture can be prepared by a process which utilizes honey as a part of both wet and dry coating compositions applied in a process which differs significantly from those previously employed in the art and overcomes color, flavor and adhesiveness problems noted there.